What Nixon Got Right in the Drug War

With the latest report out from Columbia University, I think the prison reform movement has just found itself a new manifesto. Call it the 65-65 campaign. According to the report, while 65% of all U.S. inmates are in need of drug treatment, just 11% are actually getting it. That's some seriously damning stuff.

We all know that the U.S. prison system is gargantuan -- housing 2.3 million people, it's the biggest in the world. Obviously, the fact that states have strapped budgets is no secret. And neither is the tangled nature of jail, state and federal prison bureaucracy, a jumbled system of authority diffused across thousands of facilities around the country. Okay, but still. When confronted with this lopsided ratio, 40 years after the U.S. declared drugs "public enemy number one," I have to wonder: What would Nixon say?

It's true that Nixon gets pummeled a lot for being the earliest architect in the drug war. But let's remember that the only time the bulk of drug war funding went to treatment -- not law enforcement -- was under his presidency.

Back when I was still reporting in Providence, RI, I once interviewed a cop who told me that about 80% of the crime he saw was driven by drugs. It wasn't something you'd see only reflected in the number of people picked up on drug charges -- he was talking about the sheer number of people with addictions who were driven to steal or commit violence to support their habits. Not surprisingly given lack of support for drug treatment both inside and out of prison, once released from jail, they quickly cycled back in.

Today's report, by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, reflects the same trend. In 2006, nearly 80% of violent crimes and 83% of property crimes involved the use of drugs or alcohol. What's more, among all people currently locked up in the U.S., a whopping 85% of them have some background of drug or alcohol abuse or committed a crime motivated by alcohol or drug abuse, or both.

Here's another kicker that researchers found: if all prisoners who needed treatment and post-release support actually got those services, U.S. spending to help them would break even in just a year -- even if only 10% remained crime and substance-free and employed. If states could front the cash needed for such programs (and certainly the feds could), greater levels of treatment would reap serious dividends.

There's not much that makes me nostalgic about the 70s, but if anything could....yes, this report might be doing the trick. With just 11% of the nation's prisoners receiving the treatment they need, it's time to take U.S. drug policy back to its more intelligent roots.

Photo Credit: dailymatador